This Café By An Award-Winning Chef Serves Possibly The Best French Pastries In Singapore

A swish little cake shop tucked away amongst the many eateries on the ground floor of VivoCity has been making waves with its exquisite French cakes and Instagrammable décor. One peek at its glass cake counters and it’ll be hard to tear yourself away from the gleaming mousse cakes topped with neatly piped concentric circles of frosting, others shaped like doughnuts and fruit. Aptly named A Summer In Paris, the shop is fronted by celebrated French pastry chef Yann Brys.

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Who is Yann Brys?

Chef Yann Brys, 41, has been feted for many things (you can see his face plastered on a pillar at the cafe). For one, he was awarded the coveted Mielleur Ouvrier de France in 2011. It’s an award given to the finest pastry chefs in the country by the French president. He is also credited for creating the now common technique of piping cream in a concentric circular pattern with the help of a turntable. Though he only has one store in Paris, called Pâtisserie Tourbillon (he does mostly consulting work for other bakeries and hotels), pastry geeks across the world, including Singapore, make it a point to show up whenever he makes an appearance at food events like Food & Hotel Asia. So, it was baffling to Paris-based Frenchman Franck Muller (no, not the famous watchmaker) and his son Henri that Brys did not have a business presence in the Asian region.

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The guys who brought him to Singapore

“We noticed that there are lots of French-style pastry shops in Singapore and Southeast Asia, but they are mostly of Japanese origin,” said Henri (pictured), 25. “The few French pastry shops in Singapore import their pastries frozen rather than make them fresh here. So we decided to team up with Chef Brys, who is a friend of my father’s, to introduce freshly made haute French pastries to this part of the world.”

Originally from Corsica, the Mullers had spent the last six years in Jakarta, where Franck was posted as part of his job in the oil industry. Henri moved to Singapore permanently in November last year to helm the business with biz partner Marzio Cerea. Both men take turns overseeing the operations and waiting on customers at the café in VivoCity.

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The look

True to its name, A Summer In Paris offers the spirit of the French capital in a chic space tricked out in pastel blue and pink walls, gilded accents, chocolate-hued velvet chairs and a hanging garden on its ceiling. The confections are conceived by chef Brys and executed by 28-year-old French pastry chef David Landriot in the company’s central kitchen in Admiralty. Brys visits Singapore thrice a year to ensure the quality and consistency of the products. Henri says that the plan is to open at least five more outlets in Singapore by 2021, before taking the brand abroad, across Southeast Asia and Japan.

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Tourbillon Fruit’The, $9.30 (8 DAYS Pick!)

The most popular confection here (about 50 are sold each day), this pretty-in-pink number is delicate in every sense. If this is the defining difference between haute French pastries that are freshly made in Singapore and ones that are brought in frozen, then we say the bridge between them is deep and wide. On a base of crisp citrus shortbread sits an airy jasmine tea sponge, layered with a raspberry and grapefruit compote, jasmine tea mousse, and lychee cremeux (a dense pudding). Each layer offers whispers of clean, fruity flavour and they all come together in ethereally delicious harmony. Although it is light as air, it also has a lovely richness from the voluptuous mousse and cremeux.

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Pompom, $9.30

Green apple cream and jelly, and a thin layer of pistachio teacake sit on a bed of citrus shortbread. Taste-wise it has a gentle flavour of green apple candy, tempered by the nutty warmth of the fluffy pistachio teacake. Like all the other entremets (fancy French mousse cakes) here, the textures are impressively fine, light and luscious.

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Tourbillon Lemon Tart, $8.80 (8 DAYS Pick!)

It’s easy to see why this dessert won Chef Brys his Mielleur Ouvrier de France award. There is a finely wrought balance of acidity and richness, with a gently tart lemon and yuzu curd brightened by a dab of lemon marmalade and enriched with a barely-there layer of coconut sponge. A dainty crown of yuzu-kissed meringue makes a lovely finishing touch.

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Choco’Dough, $8.80

This one's for milk chocolate lovers. A rich concoction with layers of almond and milk chocolate crunch, dulcey (caramelised white chocolate) cremeux, almond teacake, orange and mandarin marmalade, plus milk chocolate mousse. Like a decadent chocolate Jaffa cake, it is sweeter and heavier than all the other cakes here. Not bad.

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Orange Cheesecake, $8.80

Layers of fresh orange jelly and orange marmalade sit atop a full-bodied cheesecake cream and almond crunch base. While the orange elements have a fresh, vibrant zip when tasted alone, their citrusy flavours are drowned by the rich cheesecake.

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Chouchou, $8.80 (8 DAYS Pick!)

We love the balance of bitter and fruity notes, and the myriad textures of this dessert. Its lower half comprises dark chocolate mousse and cremeux, soft cocoa sponge and blackcurrant compote on a cocoa sable — all of which are satiny and rich. But the mini choux puff on top, crowned by a crisp sable crust and filled with a bitter chocolate ganache, balances out the sweetness and smooth textures with a bit of bite, bitterness and a gentle crunch.

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Zanibar, $4 per piece; $11.50 for a box of three

This complex ensemble of tiny macarons resting on a meringue shell is rather deserving of its title of Singapore’s Best Macaron from chocolate purveyors Cacao Barry. We like that it is more bitter than sweet, with friable meringue shells that give way to luscious interiors. We barely taste the ginger compote in this confection, which in our books, is not a bad thing.

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Bottom Line

The owners have definitely delivered on their bid to introduce good haute French pastries to Singapore. These are some of the most well-made entremets (French mousse cakes) that we’ve tasted in a long time — there is unmistakable finesse in the fine textures and incredibly balanced flavours in each confection. The freshness of the pastries also make a huge difference to their quality when compared to other big-name French patisseries here, like Angelina, for example. Though not cheap, the prices are comparable to other (okay, lesser) pastry shops of its ilk. Colour us impressed.

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The details

A Summer In Paris is at #01-13 VivoCity, 1 Harbourfront Walk. S098585. Tel: 9813-8575. Open daily 11am-10pm. Last orders at 10pm. https://www.facebook.com/ASIPSG/